Yara Shahidi

Needless to say, I was grateful to be surrounded by a community of people that honored my interests.

But as I got older, I began to get confronted by a big question.

Are you sure about that?

Now, this was a question I really could not escape in August of 2018, right as I was embarking on my next adventure.

I was beginning my freshman year at Harvard right as my television show, Grown-ish, began filming season two.

And I was at a crossroads, because acting for me has been more than a career.

It's given me permission to explore my fantasies.

I feel like I gain another level of empathy every time I step into a different character's shoes.

But my education has been equally as pivotal.

because my education has fulfilled my endless desire to know, to know places, to know the events that have shaped us, the communities that have built us, the obstacles that have tried to stop us, the mistakes that haunt us, but selfishly, to know about myself and my place in the world.

So my two lifelong passions were colliding, and I was being told by academic advisors and entertainment folk alike, although no one on my team, that there was no symbiotic relationship between the two worlds.

I was searching for an and, but I kept getting presented an either-or.

And I almost let those five words, are you sure about that, stop me.

But let me cut to the chase.

I'm speaking to you now as a Harvard alum with a television show going into its sixth season.

It's cool.

And while my college predicament may have been unusual, I do think this experience is quite universal, because one, I'm far from the first person to go to school while working, but also I'd go so far as to say all of us juggle multiple interests, passions and jobs.

Yet there comes a moment on our paths where we're expected to get serious, to find our one thing, stick to it.

We're told that our multiple areas of interest that we are equally drawn to are incompatible, and hit with that all-too-familiar, are you sure about that?

Suddenly, we go from being expected to know math and a language, science and history, to operating in this narrow silo for the sake of becoming an expert or really good at one thing.